


once upon a time

by skitzofreak



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: ...sort of, F/M, Gen, Jyn thinks about possibilities, Maybe a fix it, Tumblr Prompt, and stories, because Everything Happens, fanfiction is valid, it doesn't matter, maybe not, thats the point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 14:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12060981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skitzofreak/pseuds/skitzofreak
Summary: And the story was this: Everything Happens.





	once upon a time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Starbird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbird/gifts).



> [Starbird](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbird/pseuds/Starbird) posted a [thing](https://embed.tumblr.com/embed/post/Kfvf1Et8HHYSEtgtlbFOPQ/165210425869) on tumblr about how if you read too many fix it fics (*snort* "too many") then you forget that it's not The Real Ending and other people laugh at you.
> 
> But I figure: Everything happens, and media is about experiencing stories. Your fanfiction is just as real and just as valid, and don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
> 
> Anyway I made you a thing.

She remembers the story her Mama used to tell, back when she was small and the world seemed safe. It was her favorite story, and she begged Mama to tell it every night. Mama would smile and tuck her braids back and say _alright, one more time_.

And the story was this: Everything Happens.

The universe, Mama said, is vast. Countless beings, countless places, and every second something new was being born, and something old was dying. And every second, amidst all that chaotic change, someone was making a choice, Mama would smile and gesture up at the sky as if she were pointing to all those choices, all that possibility. _Every_ _second_? little Jyn would ask, because that was part of the script, and Mama would laugh and on cue say, _every single second_. And then Jyn would snuggle in closer and touch Mama’s crystal and ask, _what choices?_

And this is where the story really started, because it was different every night. Somewhere, Mama said once, a young geologist fell in love with a scientist, who was sweet and brilliant and kind- ( _and that was you, Mama! You and Papa!) (Yes, darling, in this universe, it was_ ) -and they ran away together and had a little baby girl that they loved more than anything. And they all lived happily on their farm by the sea forever, with nothing to trouble them.

Jyn liked that story best, until she didn’t.

Somewhere, Mama said once when her voice was a little strange and harsh and her eyes were red, though Jyn did not understand why, somewhere a young geologist went down into a cave full of beautiful stones and she never came back up, she stayed there and sang the songs of the Force and she’s still there now.

Jyn didn’t really like that story as much.

Eventually, the man in white comes and the stories stop, but sometimes, afterward, Jyn wraps her fingers around her crystal and thinks: somewhere, they never stopped at all. _Somewhere_ , her treacherous mind whispers, Saw remembered that she was a child, and loved her for it. Somewhere, he stayed. Somewhere, he brought her to the Alliance instead, and she grew up with people who were also fighting a war, but at least never forgot that they were _people_. Somewhere, she was given to a nice family, a little orphanage, a Core world Children’s Center. Somewhere, she never went to Imperial prison. (Somewhere, of course, she never left it.)

Somewhere (Jyn thinks as she huddles in the shuttle with a dozen other desperate people on their way to fight a desperate battle for a desperate cause), she shot him in the back. Somewhere, he shot her father and she ripped the life from him. Somewhere, she shoved him down and stole the breath from him instead. Somewhere, he pushed her back against the wall of the U-wing and returned the favor.

Somewhere (Jyn muses as they limp towards the beach, his warmth fading against her side and her steps staggering under their combined weight) their desperate plan went exactly as they hoped. Somewhere, there was a shuttle waiting at the bottom of the tower. Somewhere, Bodhi came screaming out of the imploding sky and snatched them from the hungry light on the horizon. Somewhere, she is standing beside Cassian, healthy and whole and home, watching a new world being born. (Somewhere, she is bent with grief next to a shaking, half-dead Cassian, listening to an old world die.)

Everything happens somewhere, Jyn remembers, wrapping her arms around Cassian’s broken body and listening to his breath in her ear. Somewhere, she is safe. Somewhere, she is free.

Cassian whispers _your father would be proud of you, Jyn_ and she thinks, _in a million different somewheres, none of this happened at all._

_But here and now, I’m glad you came._


End file.
